The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned: Allowing Time For Play

The experience of writing and recording our first album, youth shield antioxidant complex, was a necessary medicine during a frenzied point in time. The songs were recorded at Morph Productions in Toronto in the years 2016 and 2017. Both of us were pursuing academic degrees that demanded most of our time and so writing and recording became a powerful elixir for anxiety and fatigue. Because of the rigorousness of our respective schedules, I do recall really looking forward to any kind of jam session or time spent writing lyrics for the album. Such breaks felt like the wild abandon and joy of recess in elementary school – a sliver in a busy day to let loose and see what comes of the mind’s playground. I can’t recall any other time when the freedom to create something artistic felt so necessary, therapeutic and something to look forward to. It all started with us experimenting by recording a new-wave cover of the infamous 1996 chart-topper “How Bizarre” by OMC. After that recording session, we felt that we achieved something special.

A great deal of work that we’ve created as audio and visual collaborators was done in the spirit of a play-date. The recording of this album was no different; we would often try to channel our childhood excitement, sense of wonder and energy into a much favoured project. We had fun playing with different synth sounds, vintage keyboards and the percussion sounds of a cabasa featured on our single ‘ART CAMP”. There was a genuine brother/sister bond in all of the creative decisions and sessions that went into this body of work and we became closer friends through the process.

Looking back at those two years, I would say the most important thing was the necessity of cultural production in both of our lives. We have diverse backgrounds in visual, audio and writing-based work, and this album was a collaboration of all those skills. This first album represents a genuine stamp of our ever-evolving creative outputs.

Hailing originally from the prairies of Canada, break-out band TOPICS are a musical and visual project. Offering a synthesis of new wave, country, dance and minimalist electro-pop with heavy emphasis on bass guitar, synthesizer and reverb effects, TOPICS brings their shared experiences of anxiety, nostalgia, conceptions of home and gender performativity to the forefront with their debut album ‘youth shield antioxidant complex’.

About Us

Infectious Magazine was born out of passion. Out of a love for the live music scene and the feelings and emotions that one incredible live show, one perfect album, or one incredible song can inspire. We seek to bring you not only the latest news on your favorite bands, but on the bands that we know will become your favorites. We strive to keep the scene alive by exposing emerging artists, while also introducing our readers to stories of success, struggle, and motivation in our latest slew of music business features.